The 1954 Tour de France was the first time that the Tour had started outside France, as it started in Amsterdam. Also new was the team time trial. Although around 1930 the Tour had seen stages in which the teams started separately, in 1954 the team time trial format was reintroduced in a way that only the team time counted. Also split stages were reintroduced. Stage 4 was divided into two parts: the team time trial of 10.4 km and a regular stage of 131 km, both run on the same day. Stage 21 was also divided into a regular stage of 134 km and an individual time trial of 72 km.